Zenith
by Alpha Centauri
Summary: [oneshot] Sasuke confronts Itachi at last and chooses to die in his place. Sasuke was never the avenger everyone thought he'd be.


**A.C.:** -winces- what the hell did I just write? I suppose I could say I wanted to give a different ending to the whole Sasuke vs. Itachi thing, but I'm blaming peanut butter for this one.

**Disclaimer:** Needless to say, I don't own Naruto

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Itachi reminds himself of the sun. 

During the day others see him in his shining glory, unmarked and equally untouchable.

But at the end of the day, blood shows and he notices that at the end of the day, the sun too is bleeding red.

He remembers a time when he was more like the sunrise than the sunset.

During a time when it had been easier to put on his mask and go about each day.

But the times have come and gone...

Never again will he done another mask as easily as he did the first.

And never again will he hold his brother in his arms as he is doing now, eyes dispassionately watching the rising sun.

-

Sasuke shudders against him, head dropping to the high collar as Kusanagi jerks upwards. The blade slices through the white-lined red clouds but does not penetrate the inner layers. It sinks deeper into Sasuke's stomach, going through the space between Itachi's arm and his side.

Sasuke sees, observes and acts.

He has chosen but will never choose again.

He twists the katana upwards, drawing upon fresh reserves of blood as it cuts deeper towards the heart.

The chidori-powered blade crackles and pops and crackles against their skin.

-

"Why?"

-

Itachi has one hand out, the painted nails digging into Sasuke's snowy sleeves.

The young man's hand is numb, his heart strong.

But he has long since stopped breathing save irregular hisses between his teeth.

He hears Kisame in the background, panting like a stuck pig as thick fingers painstakingly pulled the kunai out of the blue skin.

Itachi leans closer to Sasuke's sweaty forehead,

"_Was being an avenger not enough for you, will you be a martyr too?_"

-

Sasuke barks out a harsh laughter, a one that rattles deeply in his throat along with the katana in his chest.

He sways on his feet, the bird-like calls of his chidori suddenly very far away.

The sun shines down blinding him.

His sharingan turns a lighter shade then inexplicably, it begins to fade to white like the sun.

-

Itachi pulls the sword out –slowly- and tosses it over to the side.

Blood gushes from the wound, lapping the pale skin and paler cloth before eating away at the patterns of a black sky and madder dawn.

Sasuke looks at his sibling, unfazed, while his heart begins a silent count down to his death.

Seconds trickles by like the rays expanding across the sky.

And seconds are all that Itachi needs.

The dots in elder's eyes stretch uneasily, spinning like aged clockwork and spirals out into a fan.

-

The landscape fades out and blurs into a familiar forest.

They are in a yard.

A toy –a top- rolls out into the middle prodded on by the wind.

They stand apart, together.

It is morning; the sun has yet to climb up into the sky.

Sasuke watches the clear blue, waiting.

"Why?" Itachi presses and something else is presents itself.

Curiosity

Sasuke turns blinking slowly as if surprised.

The bags under his eyes are too dark against his corpse-like pale skin.

The sharingan stands out as the only color on the younger other than black and white. His throat is bare and so is his chest.

Itachi can count a number of ways that he can kill the boy for his foolishness.

With a pang of regret he realizes he misses the small hands; calloused fingers don't look right on Sasuke.

Sasuke opens his mouth.

Blood spills out and drop by drop they soak the abandoned yard.

Blood turns into words and the words whisper into his ears,

"Because I wanted to be like you..."

They break apart.

-

The sun is high and glaring.

He is surprised; he hadn't known that Sasuke was strong enough to escape his illusion.

"I wanted to be like you."

He sees a little boy, knee-height with a determined scowl on his face.

"I wanted to be like the sun."

He sees a young man, surpassing him in death.

"To be unobtainable..."

Sasuke turns his eyes long enough to catch a glimpse of orange and pink.

"Like the sun –you."

All of it spiraling down into the color of black.

"_Was this how you felt knowing that you were my sun_?"

Sasuke's body falls away from him

He lets it

The body was a little more than a corpse to him now. The stubborn spirit that made the creature dear has already left it.

To be 'unachievable' Sasuke had done the impossible.

He looks coolly at the closing forms of team seven.

-

Once upon a time Itachi had told once told a boy to live, but Sasuke had defied him and died in his brother's place

Itachi had never understood the his logic

But it did not matter now, not anymore

In death Sasuke finally surpasses him

He looks back; the sun is slowly climbing up the still sky.

Uchiha Sasuke lays bathed in the warm glow waiting.

-

As the sun rises the two missing-nins flee, their shadows barely touching the ground.

As the sun rises Itachi's eyes bleed red for an impossible dream manifested by his younger –_inferior_- brother.

As the sun rises, Team Seven gives a chase.

The nine-tailed vessel bays misery and blood.

As the sun reaches its zenith, Sai stops to stare down at the one he replaced.

No, not –_replaced_- he tells himself as he runs after the others, the one he merely substituted.

The sun rises to its zenith.

-

Uchiha Sasuke lies beneath the golden rays, a smile of satisfaction gracing his blood speckled lips.


End file.
